Most markets you can/have heard from one location?

gr8oldies said:

...a couple from Asheville (...WMIT 99.9...)

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WMIT is on 106.9, but are you aware of the awesome history of The Light?
There was a time when they were the SuperPower WLW of FM radio.
They ran 325KW from more that two kilometers above sea level and were supposedly listenable in Atlanta.
Combining height with power, theirs was the strongest FM station ever, ever, ever.
But money got tight, people were not ready for FM, they signed off, and when new owners resurected them,
they became a normal full class C at the same height but with a 10dB reduction in power.
Poor old Billy could have something with which to inspire broadcasters everywhere.

WMIT still has one of the biggest FM signals on the East Coast, up there with WHOM Mount Washington. It adequately serves three decent-sized markets (Asheville, Greenville/Spartanburg, and parts of the Charlotte market). It peters out before you get to Columbia on 26 due to the 106.7 in the Columbia area, but it serves a great amount of territory.

On FM here I can get Charleston's FMs (of course), plus Hilton Head/Savannah on 98.7 and 106.9, always. 104.1 from Myrtle Beach usually comes in weakly, while 105.7 from Augusta (at 120 miles) comes in 85% of the time in the car. That's 4 markets. With any level of skip, 5-7 other Savannah FMs come in, plus all the Myrtle Beach FMs, and a few Columbias.

Before we were crowded in with translators, many more signals used to come through. 97.5 WCOS from Columbia was there nearly all the time at almost 120 miles. 102.7 and 101.3 from Wilmington were daily visitors (102.7 still comes in sometimes). That was on a portable. Even 10 years ago, a commercial-grade radio with an antenna here could probably pull in any station within 200 miles.

In my area, east central Iowa, I think it really kind of depends upon how "market" is defined. For TV stations, it's fairly clear. There are a number of small radio markets whose FM signals spill over into adjacent markets, often with reception as good as the locals. On FM, the auto presets on my car include stations from the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Waterloo, Dubuque and Quad Cities (IA/IL) radio "markets." A few stations from Des Moines or southeast Iowa may make it in on any given day. A couple of Rochester, MN stations used to regularly appear, but rarely, if ever, any longer.

And daytime AM radio, with fairly decent ground conductivity in this region, brings in stations from the additional markets of Chicago, Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, Des Moines/Ames, Fort Dodge, southeastern South Dakota, maybe Kansas City (a stretch), and elsewhere.

icybluelake said:

And daytime AM radio, with fairly decent ground conductivity in this region, brings in stations from the additional markets of Chicago, Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, Des Moines/Ames, Fort Dodge, southeastern South Dakota, maybe Kansas City (a stretch), and elsewhere.

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This sort of thing is what "saved the day" during my college years in southeast Iowa. With legendary top 40 stations! Daytime brought Storz' KXOK and WHB from St. Louis and Kansas City respectively. Then there was KIOA from Des Moines, KSTT from Davenport, WIRL from Peoria, and, of course, WLS from Chicago. At night all of these but WLS and KIOA vanished, but they were replaced by the likes of KOMA (Storz), and KAAY.

All that was required for this embarassment of riches was a good radio!

cyberdad said:

This sort of thing is what "saved the day" during my college years in southeast Iowa. With legendary top 40 stations! Daytime brought Storz' KXOK and WHB from St. Louis and Kansas City respectively. Then there was KIOA from Des Moines, KSTT from Davenport, WIRL from Peoria, and, of course, WLS from Chicago. At night all of these but WLS and KIOA vanished, but they were replaced by the likes of KOMA (Storz), and KAAY.

All that was required for this embarassment of riches was a good radio!

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I heard all of those stations, too, with the exception of KXOK. And WIRL would sometimes make it in at night, but not during the daytime. WCFL was inconsistent, but never really strong enough to listen to. WLS was my out-of-town alternate go-to station for years.

With a tall directional antenna between Ludington and Manistee, one can likely receive TV stations from four different markets (Traverse City-Cadillac, Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids). During the analog days, these could likely be received in most of that area:
2 WBAY Green Bay
3 WWMT Kalamazoo
4 WTMJ Milwaukee
5 WFRV Green Bay
6 WITI Milwaukee
7 WPBN Traverse City
8 WOOD Grand Rapids
9 WWTV Cadillac
10 WMVS Milwaukee
11 WLUK Green Bay
12 WISN Milwaukee
13 WZZM Grand Rapids

As late as the mid-1990s, all of these (except WISN, WOOD, and WWMT) were carried on cable in Ludington.

FM markets are harder to keep track of, but stations out of the following Nielsen-defined markets can be heard:
Appleton/Oshkosh (105.7 about 24/7, others on occasion)
Grand Rapids (occasionally 93.7, 96.9, 101.3, and 105.7)
Green Bay (99.7 and 101.1 about 24/7)
Milwaukee (usually 99.1 and 107.7)
Muskegon (most in 24/7)
Traverse City (103.5 is local quality, other signals vary widely)
At times, stations from Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Wausau can come in

icybluelake said:

I heard all of those stations, too, with the exception of KXOK. And WIRL would sometimes make it in at night, but not during the daytime. WCFL was inconsistent, but never really strong enough to listen to. WLS was my out-of-town alternate go-to station for years.

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When I went to college in De Kalb (NIU) in the late 60s-early 70s, WCFL at night sounded like a weak 500 watt station hundreds of miles away. I was right in their null.
I'm surprised that you could even hear WCFL in Iowa.

WCFL could be heard in the Quad Cities and in Iowa city (with great difficulty there) The closer you are to the southeast corner the harder it is, but a good portion of eastern Iowa could receive the signal. I never had much difficulty listening to the current WMVP in Iowa City. By the time I reached the Quad Cities, it was pretty easy. The signal was very hard to hear in places like Fairfield and pretty much wiped out in Mount Pleasant.

radioman148 said:

I'm surprised that you could even hear WCFL in Iowa.

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You could hear it 24/7 where I was....but it wasn't really listenable. I was in southeast Iowa. Mount Pleasant, which mimo is familiar with, and just mentioned. About 25 miles east of the Mississippi River, and about 25 miles north of the Missouri state line. The problem with the 'CFL day signal was splatter from WCAZ (990). At night, WCFL's signal was still present, despite being in the null, but the 990 splatter was still there....yet even stronger from CBW. XEOY was also a pest, and KTOK would also sometimes break through as well. On top of all that , being in the WCFL null made for frequent fades and distortion.

cyberdad said:

being in the WCFL null made for frequent fades and distortion.

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That's the problem I had in De Kalb at night, weak and distorted. When driving out there at night just west of Aurora WCFL's signal would drop dramatically.

When I lived in a suburb of Raleigh, we could pick up most of the Greenville/New Bern stations, a few from Greensboro/Winston-Salem, and on a good day we could the audio relay of WECT-TV, the Wilmington NBC affiliate on 87.7. Before analog TV died, we got all of the Greenville/New Bern stations and I also picked up FOX out of Myrtle Beach one night.

Now that I live in Fredericksburg VA, we get all of the DC and Richmond stations, a few from Charlottesville, and on a good day we can pick up a few Norfolk FM'ers. No idea what we can pick up OTA TV, since I no longer own an antenna.

Sidebar point related to our topic....

I remember an area Pizza Hut not far from my location with a sign inside the restaurant. Words to the effect of "Because of our proximity to the Chicago, Milwaukee, Rockford, and Madison media markets, we may not be able to honor all promotions and coupons." I'm not much a coupon or "give me a deal" guy, so it was of no consequence to me personally. But as a businessman, the sign struck me as a great way to turn off customers.

This happens more often now with Papa John's and basically every city in the country having these deals with their local sports teams (pro and college) where you get 50% off if you hit a certain threshold. For example, if the Yankees score 6 or more runs, you get 50% off a pizza the next day online, but it is only in the New York Yankees local area.

My local university has the same deal after every men's basketball win. That is only applicable though in the Papa John's in the metro Charleston area. If you go outside Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties, that deal doesn't work.

Firehouse Subs, OTOH, had a deal a couple years ago where if the Jacksonville Jaguars kicked a 40+ yard FG in a game, you would get a free sub with the purchase of a sub, chips, and a medium drink. That deal worked at Charleston area stores even though Jaguars games aren't broadcasted locally on TV (except for the preseason), and there are no radio broadcasts.

Another area where you can hear multiple markets? Rock Hill, SC. You can hear Charlotte's stations, Greenville/Spartanburg's big FMs, a couple from Columbia, plus a few from Asheville. When I was in Manasquan, NJ last summer (45 miles from the Empire State Building, 65 from Philly), I could hear all of New York's FMs, and all but one major FM from Philly, plus Atlantic City and Long Island stations. The band was packed.

Here is a video bandscan of it: https://youtu.be/4oojOOrMmfo

In Atascadero/Templeton, California, you're well within the strong local range of the San Luis Obispo FMs from Cuesta Peak but you can also hear several FMs from Fresno, KRKC from King City, several from Lompoc or Santa Maria, and even reportedly KVYB from Santa Barbara and I've also heard KWAV/96.9 from Monterrey. That's like five different locations but markets might overlap.

Some mix with others, i.e 94.9 from Cambria mixes with Fresno's 94.9 as does 93.7 from SLO, a low power translator, with 93.7 with Fresno. 99.1 and 95.7 too from Santa Maria and Lompoc IIRC. The FM dial there is getting overcrowded to say the least.